Potts leads Liberty water polo team to victory, league title

Goalkeeper Sarah Potts made 15 saves in the Bison's victory on Thursday.

By Paige Mendez, Correspondent

The Liberty girls water polo team scored a 7-4 victory over Tahquitz at home Thursday night for the league championship.

The Bison took a few close shots in the first minutes of game time but missed wide over the top of the net. After a skilled save from goalkeeper Sarah Potts, the ball got to the other end of the pool in the hands of Faith Igo and into the right side corner of the net to put Liberty on the board around the four-minute mark.

Kylie Kaas found the net just after the two-minute mark, giving the Bison a cushion before Tahquitz scored its first goal before the end of the first quarter.

Potts put up two more big saves for the Bison in the fourth and fifth minutes of the second quarter, but the biggest came around minute four when Tahquitz had a shooter within a meter of the goal and she was denied the shot.

Potts made three more blocks before the half, keeping her team's 2-1 lead.

Gigi Valencia scored the first goal of the second half for the Bison on a fast break point after a Titan shot clock violation, then found the net again less than a minute later.

Tahquitz finally got another shot past Potts just after the four-minute mark in the third quarter, but Igo had an answer to that with a no-look behind-the-back shot into the net a few minutes later.

Tahquitz found the net two more times before the end of the quarter, making the Liberty lead just one goal going into the last eight minutes.

Potts continued to put in the work with three key blocks on the first Tahquitz shots of the period, putting Kaas in the perfect position to stretch that lead with another goal of her own around the 4:40 mark.

With just over one minute left in the game, thanks again to multiple Potts blocks, the Bison were up 6-4.

Celeste Hernandez scored before the minute mark to ensure the Liberty victory. Potts put the nails in the Tahquitz coffin with one final block at the 16 -econd mark, giving her team the ball to run down the clock and take the league title, 7-4.

Potts ended the game with 15 blocks and two steals, something that she said is not the norm, but has been a long time coming.

"I think today was a litte exceptional for me," she said. "It feels amazing knowing not only did I put up those numbers, but my team put up that performance."

For head coach Hailey Badham, Potts' performance made all the difference.

"I told the team at halftime that Sarah was singlehandedly winning that game for us," she said. "I am absolutely amazed. I don't think I have words for what she did. The performance that she put on is something I've never seen from her before and for her to do that on her Senior Night, it's just something incredible."

On the same note of firsts for top-tier performances, this girls water polo team at Liberty has only been around for two years. Badham brought a team together that for the most part was new to the sport and took them to the league title in their second season together.

"I honestly don't know how we did it," Badham said. "I think I just tried to focus on the basics and remind them that basics are the foundation. We work hard and stay positive and hype them up about what they're doing."

With a league championship under their belt, the new team looks forward to CIF play in the next month in hopes of continuing their “firsts” for their school.